Innovation is a lot like change – it happens in many different ways, in many different places and involves many different people. One way to spearhead innovation is to establish teams, groups or commissions to look towards the future and identify new possibilities. As part of our reading we’ve been interested in the material produced by the 2020 Public Service Trust, an organisation set up to develop a vision for the UK public services. It concluded its work in 2010 having produced a number of reports, including their final report From Social Security to Social Productivity – A Vision for 2020 Public Services. This report is well worth reading as it identifies three levers as a way to intervene in the complex public services system.
- A shift in culture
- A shift in power
- A shift in finance
As systems thinkers we’re always looking for the best ways to intervene and think that these three shifts have the potential to underpin significant change. Have a read and see what you think.
Having been on this website, we were led to the UK 2020 Public Service Hub which has also produced a number of interesting papers, one being Business, Society and Public Services: a Social Productivity Framework (2012) (http://2020psh.org/?p=1023). Reframing and challenging our conventional ways of thinking and acting is never easy. Reports like these provide a platform for new discussions and new insights.
There may be opportunities for you to share these and other such reports with your colleagues and use them to generate new and different conversations. Suspend judgement and just explore the ideas - resist the temptation to make decisions or take action.
